Ways to check on the use of illegal devices

[Don Kennedy]

The thought occured to me that just maybe there are many ways to check on racers who are using illegal devises to have a advantge of other racers I will start first have a camera Zoom into the drivers compartment showing the tree plus the driver to see when the release the button ,any other suggestions ??

[Billy Nees]

Hoo Boy!

[Don Kennedy]

FYI Just a few ways
Some devices available are wireless traction control, although this is not yet refined ,a way to trip the beams at the finish line , a tree reader ,a wireless delay box ,plus by the way lock up convertors are Being used which are illegal, a remote way from the line by a crew man to release the trans brake via a camera looking at the tree .a person at the finish line to trip the beams with a very simple device similar to your garage door opener

[Charles Stewart]

I agree with you Don and here my own short… story.

In 2022 I was at the Ace Ohio Fall Slam (25-28 august) at Dragway42 and I was standing on top of the “left bank” direct in line with the 1/8 mile finish line to take some weather data.
I then observed a spectator "in a van" wearing a small headphone and a playing with his cellular phone or some kind of an electronic gizmo, making part time discussions right at the trap, only during runs of some certain family cars. He stayed in his van all four days long at +30 degree temperature doing this...
Further in the first day, I went up in the left spectator stand right in line with the starting line, in order to obtain more data for that track and saw another spectator up in the left stand doing the same thing with the same headphone model and cell (gizmo) also in discussions only and precisely at the start of the runs of those same family cars.
I realize later in the pits that those spectators were “spotter crews” for that racing family, working hard... at helping winning those big buck daily races???

[Jim Caughlin]

Originally Posted by Don Kennedy

The thought occured to me that just maybe there are many ways to check on racers who are using illegal devises to have a advantge of other racers I will start first have a camera Zoom into the drivers compartment showing the tree plus the driver to see when the release the button ,any other suggestions ??

That would require that NHRA enforce the no tinted windows other than factory original. I have cars come into my shop that regularly have tinting so dark that the driver can't be seen. I have broached this subject with NHRA in the past with no results, they told me that I should rat out the offenders, I told them that it is their job to enforce the rules, not me.

[TOSTO RACING]

Originally Posted by Don Kennedy

The thought occured to me that just maybe there are many ways to check on racers who are using illegal devises to have a advantge of other racers I will start first have a camera Zoom into the drivers compartment showing the tree plus the driver to see when the release the button ,any other suggestions ??

Have NHRA quit getting rid of all the good tech guys and just have tech again!



But wait, that's a dumb idea that'll never work , what am I thinking!

[Doug Hoven]

Unfortunately the only way to enforce it is for either NHRA to have tech inspectors begin randomly pulling racer's cars apart. Something like that will probably never happen, so until a racer lets his guard down and makes it obvious of something "fishy" going on, I'm thinking there won't be any action to enforce electronic rules. I think "traction control" is given more credit than it deserves. Unless it's a heads up situation, 9 times out of 10, if a car begins to break tires loose to the point where "traction control" would kick in, there is no way that they are going to run close to their dial-in. Starting line timing retards, while a form of "traction control" would be a losing battle to try and outlaw them. You'd have to deem every aftermarket ECU illegal, as well as all "programmable" MSD ignition boxes capable of using a trigger to cut timing and ramp it back in over some time. This coming season will be my 4th full time season, so my experience is limited, but I remember spectating the late rounds of a race at Numidia, where a driver did not once look ahead or over at the other lane, then proceeded to "spot drop" and run within a few thou of their dial. Kind of suspicious IMHO, but with enough practice, and the right car, I suppose you could spot drop and be almost dead on every run.

[Hacksaw]

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by Hacksaw

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

Did he beat you? Win the race?

[Doug Hoven]

Originally Posted by Hacksaw

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

Are there ways of doing it? Probably. I took a class in the spring semester last year at school where we had to learn how to program a microcontroller, in our case called an "arduino."(look it up, pretty neat stuff). With a basic program, I wouldn't be surprised if you could take some sort of frequency based input, i.e. abs tone ring or driveshaft rpm sensor, and, through a series of programming "tricks," cause a certain output from the board(possibly illuminate an LED) if the graph generated by the sensor signal is either faster or slower than a baseline graph. Now the real question is whether or not anyone would be so clever, or go through the amount of effort for the lousy purse we have, and something like this. My personal guess would be no, but ya never know.